Hannah's Hips

by Viki
(Bryceville, Florida)

For those of you that have been following the adventures of my sweet Hannah, service dog in training, I have some sad news. Hannah's hips are going to knock her out of being my service dog. She has dysplasia, and will have to go through two painful surgeries with lots of healing time between.

We hope to keep her as our pet. The problem is that our landlady only allows service animals. If we get another puppy for training it will be hard to explain why Hannah needs to be here. For this first year it will be okay -- since Hannah will have to wait a minimum of 4-6 months between surgeries...but after that...

Hannah is not having hip replacements. She is having something called an FHO, which until this all came up, I didn't even know about! The doctor will take out the top portion of her leg, the ball joint that attaches to the hip socket. Then the muscles and tendons will take over the job of the ball and socket. Sounds very odd, but apparently the surgery works well, and Hannah will not develop arthritis down the line.

If anyone has been through this and has any advice, let me know!